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(1688-1747). Often called the "Napoleon of Iran," the 18th-century bandit leader Nadir Shah created an empire that stretched from northern India to the Caucasus Mountains. Nadir Qoli Beg was born in Kobhan, Iran, on Oct. 22, 1688, into one of the Turkish tribes loyal to the Safavid shahs of Iran. In 1726, as head of a group of bandits, he raised an army of 5,000 to help Shah Tahmasp II regain the throne the shah’s father had lost four years before. Success in battle brought the bandit power enough to restore the shah and then depose him in favor of the shah’s infant son. In 1736 Nadir deposed young Abbas III, as Tahmasp’s son was known, and had himself proclaimed shah.